I've never been bitten by a police dog.
And I know only one person who has been bitten, and believe it was justified. A friend's son got on the wrong side of a snarling German shepherd several years ago. Then a teenager, he had been hanging out at an elementary school late at night with some of his buddies when "someone" set a garbage can on fire.
Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Police Department officers arrived, but my friend's son ignored a command to stop and was brought down by a police dog as he fled. Luckily for him the dog's jaws grabbed in the exact area on his thigh where his cellphone was buried in his pocket. The phone was crushed, but the teenager came away with little more than a ripped pair of jeans, bruising and a life lesson he'll never forget.
I'm glad the VPD used the dog that night because I, and not to mention his single mother, would have been devastated had he been shot. That incident also seemed to be one of the catalysts that drove the teenager to make a change. Today he's working his way through university with plans for a career within the justice system, possibly as a criminologist or lawyer.
Here's a young man who took responsibility for his actions and learned from them. He and his mom never considered suing because they both believed if it hadn't been for his actions at the school, the incident would never have happened. A far cry from 33-year-old Christopher Evans who launched a lawsuit Dec. 12, suing two VPD officers and City of Vancouver, for what he alleges was the careless and excessive use of a police dog. The VPD heard of the lawsuit only last Thursday.
Doctors used nearly 100 staples to close the gaping wound on Evan's thigh as the result of the attack. He is being backed in his lawsuit by Pivot Legal Society, an organization that does great work in defending what it sees as injustice thrust upon those who can't defend themselves.
I typically applaud Pivot's work, but this case concerns me. Video footage from June 2011 released by the VPD this week clearly shows an aggressive Evans attempting to smash the front window of a transit bus with his skateboard before successfully breaking the window of the side door. The VPD made the unusual step of releasing the video this week to show its side of the story.
A fearful female driver can be heard on the video telling the man he can't board because he's "too aggressive." But that doesn't stop Evans from continuing his physical and verbal attacks.
With a panicked transit driver on the phone to what could be a supervisor, Evans finally moves away from the door.
Evans then skated away, apparently so unconcerned by the scene he caused that, according to his version of events, he placed his headphones on to listen to music. That's why, Evans told the media, he couldn't hear the VPD officer's command to stop and also why he had no idea the police dog was in hot pursuit.
Now he's decided to use the valuable resources offered by Pivot to launch a lawsuit that no matter how it plays out will cost the city a lot of money.
What you can't see in the video is the reaction of the passengers on the bus. But I can imagine the fear some of them felt. Think about being a mom alone with a young child, a single woman or a senior heading home on that bus.
I promise you this: if I'd been on that bus with my two-year-old grandson and Evans had smashed his way on board, he'd have a lot more to worry about than a snarling police dog.
Twitter: @sthomas10
